GLEANINGS. 615 



catching prey. The nest of the Pelicans is generally ar- 

 ranged on the ground near the water, and they lay large, 

 white eggs. 



The Darter or Snake-bird (Plotus anhinga), about 3 feet 

 long, is " glossy greenish-black ; a broad, gray wing-band 

 formed by most of the coverts; lower neck behind and 

 scapulars speckled with grayish-white; tertiaries striped 

 with silvery-ash; tail, pale-tipped; filamentous feathers of 

 neck, purplish-ash; the female, with parts of the head, neck 

 and back, brown, the throat and breast, fawn-color, sharply 

 margined with rich brown." (Coues.) It is an odd-shaped 

 bird, and belongs to the Southern States. 



Frigate or Man-of-War Bird {Tachypetes aquilus), some 

 42 inches long and 8 feet in extent, is a curious shaped bird, 

 with long, slender, hooked bill, and pouch under the chin; 

 immense spread of wings and long forked tail; very short 

 legs and small webbed feet. The male is brownish-black, 

 with more or less iridescence, and lighter underneath; the 

 female, white on the neck and breast. This grand bird, of 

 marvelous powers of ■ flight, gregarious, especially in the 

 breeding season, when it nests in bushes by the water, lay- 

 ing 2 or 3 greenish-white eggs, is found in the South Atlan- 

 tic and Gulf States, and in the tropics. 



The Yellow-billed Tropic Bird (Phaton flavirostris), about 

 the size of a small Gull, satiny-white, rose-tinted in matur- 

 ity; basal half of many of the shafts and fine markings in 

 many of the feathers, black; bill, orange or yellow; the 

 small webbed feet, black. A young male of this species, 

 rare even on the Gulf Coast, was brought to me alive in 

 Orleans Co., in September, 1876. It was picked up in a 

 state of exhaustion in a clover field, after a heavy storm 

 from the southwes't. 



The Skua Gulls or Jaegers, genus Stercorarius, are large, 



